More than 22,620 Texas secondary students who stopped showing up for class in 2008 were excluded from the state’s dropout statistics because administrators said they were being home-schooled, according to Texas Education Agency figures.

But that’s where the scrutiny of this growing population seems to end, leaving some experts convinced that schools are disguising thousands of middle and high school dropouts in this hands-off category.

While home-schooling’s popularity has increased, the rate of growth concentrated in Texas’ high school population is off the chart: It’s nearly tripled in the last decade, including a 24 percent jump in a single year.

And, I get a chance to agree with Dr. Brian:

“That’s just ridiculous,” said Brian D. Ray, founder of the National Home Education Research Institute. “It doesn’t sound very believable.”

Officials are looking into the numbers:

Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and HISD Superintendent Terry Grier are among the officials who were unaware of the large increase in home-schooling withdraws from Texas high schools. They agree that the figures need to be scrutinized.

“Home-schooling is something I’m 100 percent behind,” Shapiro said. “When it becomes a scapegoat for dropouts, when it becomes a bucket to not have to list this type of student, I’m absolutely adverse to that. I think it’s wrong.”

Shapiro, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said she plans to delve deeper into the figures.

3 responses to Texas Push-outs

While I completely agree that these statistics have obviously been falsified, I also think that this is a matter that needs to be addressed with the parents. Even assuming only 1/2 of those 20K are dropouts, then that means that over 10,000 PARENTS are not caring about their children’s education. How do you think this issue should be addressed?

Looks like the bureaucrats can’t even hand parents the proper forms before the door hits them in the behind.
I hear it a lot in WA State – school personnel tells the parents to homeschool – end of the discussion.